Monthly Archives: February 2016

I really thought it would take longer, but I am here to report that the sugar dragon has been slain. At least for now.

I started this no-sugar project on the 10th thinking it would take me at least 2 weeks to get a handle on this addiction. But no. It’s done. I don’t have any hankering for sugar any more. I don’t crave it, or miss it, or want it.

Done. I feel more in control of my self and my life. (But to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t that big of a sugar freak to begin with.) But I did have certain triggers: Chocolate with wine, for instance. Gelato for creamy comfort when I had a lot of hard work to do. Midel Ginger snaps when I wanted something with tea. Like that.

As soon as I broke the chain reaction and noticed I was perfectly okay with just a glass of wine, or just a cup of tea, and as soon as my brain didn’t associate sugar with reward anymore, I got free.

I’m not saying I will never eat anything with sugar in it ever again, but when I do, it will be a treat, I will have just a tiny bit, and then go off it.

I really don’t think it is going to be like an alcoholic’s one drink and totally off the wagon. I really don’t.

It is also consoling me that I am going to be doing a Purification cleanse with Jennifer next month, so if there is some teetering or backsliding, I have a program in place to address that.

G is in Myrtle Beach with her team this weekend. I don’t know how she is doing, but I suspect it is still hard for her (she really misses her mochas!) but that she is staying clean.

So here’s my advice, for what it’s worth.

You’re going to feel like shit for awhile, that’s a given. You’re going to want to bail. Don’t. There is going to be a moment when the shackles will just magically fall away and you’ll be free, and you’ll feel positively giddy.

Give yourself as long as it takes to get there, knowing that it WILL COME.

Because when at last you are free, you’ll feel powerful and amazing. You’ll stop peaking and crashing. Your energy will return and you’ll feel Zen and even-tempered.

Eat healthy fats instead of sugar. Butter, coconut oil, and avocados saved me. Try the Bulletproof coffee. If the butter sounds gross, start with a just teaspoon of coconut oil in your coffee. It’s very calming and soothing to the nervous system.

Take it as a given that you’re going to be tired and grouchy. Get lots of sleep. Whenever you can, indulge in slothful inclinations.

Then take a bath. Do your laundry. Clean something small. It will cheer you up.

Do some yoga. If you can hack it, make it Power Yoga. The endorphin boost will make you feel sooo much better.

I hope you liked reading about this little project, and aren’t sorry it didn’t last the full month.

I must say, once the crappy parts of this no-sugar experiment ended, I’ve felt an up-tick in my cognitive energy, and am hatching a new book project.

Woke up, wrote for 3 hours straight, worked out, and then spent the rest of the afternoon planning my class and walking Boomer.

I’ve been fooling around with Bulletproof. So far, just the coffee. I brew my usual coffee, add some Kerrygold butter and some coconut oil, put it in the Nutribullet, buzz it up for 30 seconds and drink it.

It’s creamy and delicious, and holds me for a long time.

The Bulletproof Diet, as far as I can tell, is basically Paleo, which is basically Atkins: high protein, low carb.

When I was guinea-pigging myself through IIN and trying every diet I studied, the Paleo way of eating made me feel the best. The only downside was all the meat.

A little meat is okay. But a lot? Kinda nauseating.

Eggs? I can do eggs, but too much meat is disgusting. So I couldn’t go all in for Paleo, and I can’t go all in for Bulletproof either, but I do like the butter coffee.

I also like the intermittent fasting. Here’s how it works: Bulletproof coffee when you wake up and then no food until 2, which isn’t hard for me at all because the butter and the coconut oil (or for me now, the Brain Octane) plus the caffeine, really hold me. I have never been deeply committed to breakfast.

At 2 PM I eat a nice lunch, go to class at 4:30, come home at 7:30 and have a little snack, and am finished eating by 8 PM.

Rinse and repeat.

That’s an 18 hour fast. I like to do it 2 days in a row, then go back to eating breakfast and a little more food. I like this way of eating. It makes me feel light and energized.

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(To my horror, it just occurred to me that I may have turned into that person–the one who talks about what she eats all the time. Good god.

I love it when articles like this fall into my lap at the exact moment I need them.

I really like Scientific American Mind. The articles are just scientific enough, without beating me over the head with a million studies.

This issue came today.

It turns out that as a brain hack, getting rid of sugar and eating fish and Omega 3s and fruits and vegetables will go a long way toward staving off depression and a whole host of other brain derailments.

It’s all about food, people. “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” I learned that in my training at IIN.

Whenever I am feeling sub-par, or hurting, the first place I look is my diet.

Today was so cloudy and crappy. I felt so lethargic. Spent the day in my Space Chair reading Mindset by Carol Dweck, eating curried lentil soup for lunch and leftover garlic chicken and broccoli for dinner.

Seriously. I didn’t go into this Sugarless Project for weight loss. (Have you seen me?) But here’s the thing: I have this Tanita scale that measures everything: weight in pounds, body fat percentage, hydration level, percentage of bone, and the number of calories I need to eat to maintain whatever weight I’m at.

I’m not a slave to a scale, but it is one metric. When I step on it, I look for variations, ups and downs, rather than any particular number.

I couldn’t get it together today. I think it’s the lack of dopamine. According to the science, sugar gives me a nice dopamine hit, and then I want another one, and another one, and the more sugar I eat, the more it takes to get the same quality high.

I remember JeanAnne telling me once that you don’t need to eat the whole piece of chocolate cake (or any dessert) because all the pleasure comes in the first bite. Just savor that one first bite, and that’s it. After that, the pleasure drops to almost nothing.

I want to say right here, for the record, that I make a wicked chocolate cake. Truly astonishing. It’s from scratch, it’s moist and light, but sinfully rich at the same time. A gastronomical orgasm.

Nope. We’re going to have a nice dinner, some wine, and just suck it up.

You should feel sorry for us. Because it’s sad. It really is. Especially tonight when it’s freaking 30 below outside and a body needs a little sugar to mitigate the pain. But we’re going to hold strong, and hopefully be better for it in a few weeks.

I want to swan dive into my death from the high board of health and vitality, if possible.

I want to enter the flow state predictably and regularly.

But mostly, I want to hack my brain for optimum performance.

There are 3 brain hacks I’m familiar with: food, sleep and exercise. This project is (obviously) a food hack.

I have always known (but ignored and denied) that sugar fucks with me.

It messes with my brain and my gut. So what I want to find out in the next 2 weeks is if I will I see gains in cognition and energy. And if so, how dramatic.

I want dramatic.

I did an alcohol elimination in January. I had no booze for a month. I’m not a heavy drinker, but I do love my wine, and during December I had a glass or 2 almost every night, along with other specialty Holiday drinky-poos .

At the end of my Dry January, I felt no different. I didn’t lose an ounce of weight, and although I might have had a smidge better quality sleep, what the whole experiment revealed was that alcohol and I are solid. Thank god.

I don’t eat much sugar now, but when I do, I REALLY WANT IT. My cravings are INTENSE. Last night I wanted those ginger snaps with my wine, but grabbed some pistachios instead, and survived.

In the next 2 weeks I want to deconstruct these cravings, figure them out.

As for G, she’s still missing her morning mocha, and at this very moment is scrounging around looking for a nosh of some kind. (It’s 2 PM). I trust she’ll stay strong and choose nuts.

We’re going to prevail. It’s only 2 and a half weeks. No biggy. That’s not even an issue.

What we’re both curious about is: who will we be when we’re sugar-free?